, aka ''Moju the Blind Beast'' is a 1969 Japanese film directed by

Yasuzo Masumura was a Japanese film director. Biography Masumura was born in Kōfu, Yamanashi. After dropping out of a law course at the University of Tokyo he worked as an assistant director at the Daiei Film studio, later returning to university to study ph ...

. It is based on a novel by

Edogawa Rampo , better known by the pen name was a Japanese author and critic who played a major role in the development of Japanese mystery and thriller fiction. Many of his novels involve the detective hero Kogoro Akechi, who in later books was the le ...

Plot

Young aspiring

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...

Aki Shima is kidnapped by a mysterious blind man and taken to his home in a warehouse, which is filled with

sculptures Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

of human body parts and female figures. The blind man, Michio Sofu, is a sculptor who wishes to use Aki as an unwilling

muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

for his greatest work. As her time in captivity wears on, Aki soon becomes enraptured by her blind captor and the two soon become lovers, beginning a series of Sadomasochistic games. In the end Aki agrees to become something more than just the inspiration for his masterpiece, becoming the art piece itself, to which Michio agrees. After killing and dismembering Aki, Michio "sculpts" her corpse into a macabre work of art. Seeing his life's work complete, Michio then commits suicide.

Cast

* Eiji Funakoshi as Michio Sofu *

Mako Midori is a Japanese actress. Debuting on film in 1964, she won the Blue Ribbon Award for best new face for ''Nihiki no mesuinu''. Beyond appearing in over fifty Japanese language films in the 1960s and 1970s, she has also acted extensively on stage, ...

as Aki Shima *

Noriko Sengoku , known by her stage name , was a Japanese film and television actress active primarily in the 1950s and 1960s. She made her film debut in 1947 and starred in several of Akira Kurosawa's early films such as ''Drunken Angel'' (1948), '' The Quiet ...

as Shino, Mutter

Release

''Blind Beast'' was released in Japan on January 25, 1969. The film was released by Daiei International Film with English subtitles in April 1969. It was reissued by Roninfilm under the title ''Warehouse'' in February 1974. It was released to Blu-ray in the United States from Arrow Films on August 24, 2021.

Reception

In a contemporary review, ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' praised the cinematography and Shigeo Mano's art direction, while noting that his previous films dealt with sexuality such as ''Daini no Seo'' and ''Manji'' but "these are kindergarten material compared with ''The Blind Beast''...it's a sick film." Retrospective reviews include critic Jasper Sharp calling it "One of the most fascinatingly freakish of all the big screen adaptations of the works of Japanese mystery writer Edogawa Rampo". Tom Vick of AllMovie compared the film to ''

The Collector ''The Collector'' is a 1963 thriller novel by English author John Fowles, in his literary debut. Its plot follows a lonely, psychotic young man who kidnaps a female art student in London and holds her captive in the cellar of his rural farmhous ...

'' and opined that "Masumura, a master of dark humor and

macabre In works of art, the adjective macabre ( or ; ) means "having the quality of having a grim or ghastly atmosphere". The macabre works to emphasize the details and symbols of death. The term also refers to works particularly gruesome in natur ...

psychodrama, strikes an odd balance between silliness and horror throughout the film. One of the nuttier entries in his oeuvre, Blind Beast is a delicious guilty pleasure." ''

Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...

'' referred to the film as a "fascinating curiosity" with "bizarre production design, tendency towards outlandish symbolism and eccentric performances, it seems at least partly tongue in cheek even at its most extreme."

References

Footnotes

Sources

* *

External links

* Films directed by Yasuzo Masumura 1960s erotic thriller films Japanese erotic thriller films Films based on Japanese novels Films based on works by Edogawa Ranpo Daiei Film films Films about blind people 1960s Japanese films Films about disability 1960s Japanese-language films {{erotic-thriller-film-stub